Progreso mayor pleads guilty in corruption scheme

By Aaron Nelsen :
April 2, 2014
: Updated: April 3, 2014 12:19am

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Progreso Mayor Omar Leonel Vela pleaded guilty Wednesday to his role in a “pay-to-play” public corruption scheme, extracting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from contractors in exchange for contracts with the city and the school district.

Vela pleaded guilty to federal bribery and conspiracy charges and will forfeit $314,000 for his part in the public corruption scheme in the small border community in the Rio Grande Valley.

Federal prosecutors have said the mayor's father, Jose Vela, the maintenance and transportation director for Progreso Independent School District, held the reins of local government and the school board through his sons Omar and school board president Michael Vela.

Together, the Velas demanded bribes and kickbacks from contractors, while Jose, the family patriarch, manipulated school board members through reward and retaliation, federal prosecutors said.

Prosecutors charged the three men with conspiracy, mail fraud, theft and bribery last August. All three men initially pleaded not guilty.

Omar will be sentenced in July and faces up to 15 years in prison. His brother and father have re-arraignment hearings scheduled in the coming days.

In February, another of Jose's sons, Orlando Vela, Progreso's mayor pro-tem and school district asset and risk manager, was charged in a Houston federal court with using his office supply company, Borderline Office Supplies, to embezzle thousands of dollars from the school district.

Federal prosecutors allege that as mayor, Omar controlled local government, enabling him and his family to rake in more than $300,000 in bribe payments from contractors, including a local architect, a construction company and the school board attorney.

In January, McAllen architect Jesus Bustos was charged with paying bribes to members of the Vela family since 2004 in order to land construction projects for his architectural firm, IDEA Group LLC.

The plea agreement says that from April 2009 to December 2012, Omar Vela instructed the owner of a plumbing and electrical supply company to provide fraudulent invoices to the school district and the city for products it didn't provide.

When the invoices were paid, the owner returned more than $14,000 in kickbacks to Vela.

In one colorful example of how the system worked, federal prosecutors allege a lawyer seeking a contract with Progreso ISD gave Jose Vela eight boxes of Buchanan's Scotch after Omar explained: “It's the barter system. ... You know, my back is itching, scratch it.”